Performance a ‘privilege’ for soprano

This weekend, the Spokane Symphony continues its current Classics season with a program that puts the Spokane Symphony Chorale in the spotlight. The symphony will be joined by Canadian soprano Martha Guth for a performance of French composer Francis Poulenc’s interpretation of the 13th-century Catholic hymn Stabat Mater. We spoke with Guth about her background in opera, which composers she most admires and the importance of collaboration in her work.

SR: When did you first become interested in performing?

Guth: I have been performing since I was a child. It was just something that really got into my bones at a very early age and never let me go.

SR: Do you recall the point when you knew opera was going to become your primary career focus?

Guth: I had a really wonderful teacher growing up in Vancouver, Canada, named Phyllis Mailing, who took me on as a high school student, although she really taught much more advanced singers. She always steered me toward classical music, saying that my voice was really much better suited, and she was right. I would also say that Bruce Pullan, the conductor of the children’s choir in which I performed, really opened my eyes to the absolute beauty, complexity and challenge of classical music as a lifelong study. Opera and choral music was also something that was always on in our house at home, and I really feel like this was formative for me.

SR: Are there any composers or specific operas that you count among your favorites, or that you have performed most often?

Guth: Probably the operas that I perform the most would be a tie between … Mozart and contemporary opera. I find there is a real link between music from the baroque and classical time periods and what is being written today. … I am also, by the way, a huge fan of Francis Poulenc as well, the composer for the piece we are performing with the symphony. I’ve performed a number of his choral works, and many of his songs for voice and piano, and they can be so beautiful, so filled with longing or resignation that they just make your heart ache.

SR: When you are working on learning a new piece, what is your process for understanding and interpreting it?

Guth: I am fairly rigorous when it comes to learning new music. I translate the text, if it is something I do not understand immediately, then I learn the notes and rhythms, just on basic vowels first to make sure I am technically able to do what I need. I tend to then “walk it” into my body. Since performing classical music is a visceral, athletic experience, adding motion often gets me to really use my whole body to sing instead of locking up. Only after that do I allow the last part – the fun part – which is really turning those notes and rhythms into the art of making music. I feel that if you have done the hard work beforehand, this final step is the privilege of performance.

SR: Do you generally perform onstage with large groups or symphonies? Is collaboration an important part of your creative process?

Guth: I do, and it is so much fun. I tend to do a lot of chamber music and a lot of orchestral music with or without choir. Collaboration is 100 percent the key to music-making. Unless you are absolutely alone on stage, you are really part of the collective of musicians who are all there to make something greater than the sum of its parts. Believe me, there is no greater thrill than to have that wall of sound from each and every colleague up there coming at you from the front of the stage, and it is an honor to be able to make my living this way.

SR: Tell me about the Poulenc piece you will be performing with the symphony. What is its significance, and do you have a personal history with it?

Guth: The Poulenc Stabat Mater will be a debut performance for me. I have performed the text of the Stabat Mater as conceived by other composers, and I have performed a whole lot of other music by Francis Poulenc, but not this one before. I am really excited about it. Both the text and the music are pious, serious and can be dramatic. Poulenc is known for his gorgeous writing for both the choir and solo singers, and he has an ability to surprise with unexpected harmonies that are meltingly beautiful and profound at the same time.